Vlogging With Channel Mum and Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons #ButtonsMemoryLane

When Channel Mum first came along, a couple of years ago, I was so so very excited as I saw the potential of it. I waited a month or two and then with a great deal of trepidation submitted a written application which resulted in my being asked to submit a video. I didn't want to submit one from the existing live videos on my channel at the time and plus I wanted to submit one in line with the exciting idea I'd proposed in my application.

Every month I put off filming a video and wasn't at all ready. Whilst I was still considering it a close friend told me not to worry as they only wanted "young mums in their 20s" IHO, which turned out not to be the case. I didn't fully believe this at the time anyway, so it stayed on my mind but each and every month I did not take the plunge and whilst I procrastinated You Tube grew without me. I still kept my toe in the water vaguely, but only because I had to do this video on Vlogging with a Phone Camera for Collective Bias but it gave me hope I could still, possibly, be a Vlogger.

The world unfortunately does not stand still whilst we ponder something. Which was a great shame as twice, in the past, I was at the pinnacle of doing something with my channel (three times if you include when I actually created it in 2012). Once, when I edited my Featherdown Farm video, and was loving i-movie. But then my hubby broke dropped my Apple Macbook soon after. I often wonder where my channel would have been if I carried on with the enthusiasm I had then. I had a second chance last year, when I was uploading a lot of videos, getting in a flow with Windows Live Movie Maker and successfully edited a wonderful well received vlog of our daytrip to Weston Super Mare but then soon after my camera and laptop broke simultaneously (well not in the same month) AND I got pregnant. A pregnancy that found my morning sickness being made worse each and every time I went near the computer. Do they emit waves due to the Wifi? I don't know, but I had dreams of being a pregnancy vlogger and blogger but the morning sickness that would worsen the second I went near my computer really really put me off. Another VERY odd thing, was I could no longer even be a You Tube viewer and commenter late night in bed on my phone as theme tunes would make me feel ill, even my own, like the one on my Folly Farm video. Within 2 bars of that I would want to hurl which is so odd as I watched it again and again and again when making it and can do now too. That problem was just between weeks 6 and 14 of pregnancy whilst I had morning sickness, something I never suffered with Aaron.

When my aunt then so generously sent me my cousin's old computer it wasn't compatible with ANY movie maker, not even a bought CD that I got hubby to buy me for Xmas 2015 so I started to use You Tube editor (it's in the upload section) and oh my God it frustratingly has its limitations and is arduous and time consuming to use. So I'd got used to Windows and Apple and now had neither.

Anyway that laptop then broke too....... I will probably fix my broken laptops one day. I have a total of 3 (one apple and two windows). Well I need to as each of them has thousands of photos on and they are so so so precious and not backed up anywhere oooops.

Precious memories, yes that's what they are, which......... coincidentally is exactly what I got the chance to work on, with Channel Mum in recent weeks. Yep I am finally up to the current day with this preamble.

Even though I'm not an ACTUAL Channel Mum Vlogger, they widened their reach for their recent Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons campaign. I was honoured that I got to work on the campaign and I simultaneously PLUGGED my channel into their site which you can now do.

It has to be said I am rusty at vlogging. Turns out it's not like riding a bike where you never forget. It may or may not be obvious to you dear reader but my Mum said I seem really nervous and dearest Mum you are right I was. After wanting to be a Channel Mum for so long the nerves really DID get the better of me. but when you see the scenes of me, in the video, where I am not alone, but instead with my little Mr Charming, my Aaron, you'll see the nerves are not there and that's the real me.

So have a watch to see what our top 3 little moments of shared joy are:

Did you like it? I hope so. We do really feel joy in those moments. My boy is my everything and somehow my heart has grown to have enough love for two children. This is lil Lottie's first words which I was so very very lucky to manage to capture on camera.

So if I could do that Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons video again what would I do differently?

• I would straighten (and cut) my hair so that I'd feel confident with my appearance.
• I'd pick a higher seat so that you'd see the sunny garden and our lovely wooden blinds as a backdrop instead of just looking at my worktops and the gap where a dishwasher should be.
• I'd pick a better angle so that you can see me down to at least my waist so that it doesn't look like my neckline goes on forever.
• I'd perhaps do the whole video with Aaron as the scenes with him in are by far my favourites.
• I'd practice vlogging more, so that I am a pro instead of a novice. Blimey I have vlogged before I'm just rusty. My first ever vlog in 2012 was done to a stranger, a professional camera man, and yet I spoke for 8 minutes, unscripted, in ONE take! I should have ran with it and done it more often. Yep I often wonder where my channel would be now if I'd done just that.

So now is not the time for regrets. Yes I have got them off my chest above, but now is the time for moving swiftly onwards and upwards without constraint. So despite those 3 broken laptops I do now have another. It is on loan from the hubby but I CAN now edit videos and I have dived right in, whilst the iron is hot. Despite how much people tell you videos should be short I went and uploaded a 36 minute vlog. I'll tell you what happened. I wanted to do justice to our trip on a City Cruises boat down the Thames. It was gifted to me as a blogger with no pressure to review. I uploaded all of my content and it totalled 1 hour 9 minutes. I know that short videos should be 1-3 minutes and the popular slot for long videos seems to be 16 or 22 minutes. But with all of the editing in the WORLD my video came out as 36 minutes and given I was so attached to the content that was remaining it was not going to go any shorter so I hit publish.

Given that my Mum is in Ireland she watched all of our videos as a way to stay in touch. She is my biggest critic and said she loved it. I said "are you sure you watched all 36 minutes" and she laughed and said "yes, I felt like I myself went down the Thames". I was thrilled as that was what I wanted to create. It was a "I'll take you with me" type of vlog. Normally I include something long somewhere, that my Mum says I should have edited out, but no such criticism with this video. If you are a lover of London or a lover of the London Underground and history you may just love it too. I certainly got GREAT feedback from Carolin at Mummy Alarm (thank you).

So that's me. A lil insight into my history with YouTube. But from my main channel homepage you can see some playlists, like what my popular videos are etc... 

Did you work on the #ButtonsMemoryLane campaign? What did you think? I loved creating our memory lane, thinking about our joyful everyday moments and seeing the joy that Aaron and his cousins experienced whilst watching it.

You can make your own Memory Lane and my video above shows you just how easy it is to create from up to 7 of your own photos. Your kids will love watching it it's so easy to do and such great fun. Plus you can share it online with friends and family. Use the hashtag #ButtonsMemoryLane and tag @channelMum when you share it. We'd love to see it. Once you've created your memory lane, you'll be sent a link to your phone if you supplied a phone number or to your inbox if you chose to submit an email address. The link you use to then watch your memory lane is the same link you can share with others as I have done with mine above.

Disclosure: I am being compensated for my Cadbury Dairy Milk #ButtonsMemoryLane video which is therefore an #ad.